Wireless communication unit

Abstract

A wireless communication unit includes a baseband module and a radiofrequency module. A communication interface connects the baseband module to the radiofrequency module. Data can be communicated from the baseband module to the radiofrequency module and/or vice versa via the interface. The communication interface includes one or more data compression arrangement, for compressing original data to be transmitted over the communication interface, from a transmitting side of the communication interface to a receiving side of the communication interface, into compressed data and decompressing the compressed data after transmission and restoring the original data. The data compression arrangement may include a data compression unit at the transmitting side of the communication interface, and a data decompression unit at the receiving side of the communication interface.

1. A wireless communication unit, comprising:
 a baseband module; 
 a radio frequency module; 
 a communication interface connecting said baseband module to said radio frequency module, for communicating data from said baseband module to said radio frequency module and/or vice versa;
 wherein:
 said communication interface includes at least one data compression arrangement, for compressing original data to be transmitted over the communication interface, from a transmitting side of the communication interface to a receiving side of the communication interface, into compressed data and decompressing said compressed data after transmission and restoring the original data, said data compression arrangement including: 
 a data compression unit at said transmitting side of the communication interface, and 
 a data decompression unit at said receiving side of the communication interface; 
 
 
 said original data comprises a plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values, each member of each pair of the plurality of pairs comprising a sequence of bits of length x; and 
 said compressing comprises:
 calculating a minimum value of I 2 +Q 2  over all of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values; 
 for each position of a bit from 1 to x, determining a threshold, where 1 represents the most significant position and x represents the least significant position; 
 determining that the minimum value exceeds a threshold for a jth position; and 
 
 removing from each sample of a plurality of samples in said original data the bits from the jth position to the xth position. 
 
     
     
       2. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 ,wherein said baseband module is provided at a baseband side of said communication interface and said radio frequency module is provided at a radio frequency side of said communication interface, and
 wherein said at least one data compression arrangement includes:
 a first data compression arrangement for compressing original data to be transmitted over the communication interface from said baseband side to said radio frequency side into compressed data and decompressing said compressed data after transmission and restoring the original data; 
 a second data compression arrangement for compressing original data to be transmitted over the communication interface from said radio frequency side to said baseband side into compressed data and decompressing said compressed data after transmission and restoring the original data. 
 
 
     
     
       3. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 2 , wherein said data compression unit is arranged to execute a compression algorithm, and said data compression unit includes a control input for controlling compression ratio of said compression algorithm based on a data communication protocol used by the radio frequency module and/or a quality of service requirement. 
     
     
       4. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , including a data frame constructing unit for constructing a data frame, said data frame including a payload part which includes the compressed data and a non-payload part including supplemental data for handling the data frame, said supplemental data including decompression information for decompressing the compressed data, said data frame constructing unit being connected with an input to an output of said data compression unit, for receiving the compressed data and said decompression information. 
     
     
       5. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said data compression unit is arranged to execute a compression algorithm, and said data compression unit includes a control input for controlling compression ratio of said compression algorithm based on a data communication protocol used by the radio frequency module and/or a quality of service requirement. 
     
     
       6. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1  wherein said data compression unit is arranged to execute a lossless compression algorithm or to execute a lossy compression algorithm. 
     
     
       7. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said original data includes at least one set of a predetermined number of characters, and said data compression unit is arranged to compress said original data per set, after all characteristics of a set have been received by said data compression unit. 
     
     
       8. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 7 , wherein said set includes at least two samples, each sample including two or more characters and said data compression unit is arranged to compress the original data in each of said samples in the same manner. 
     
     
       9. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said data represents one or more of: voice, video data. 
     
     
       10. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , wherein said data compression unit and/or said data decompression unit can be disabled when desired. 
     
     
       11. A wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , arranged to operate in accordance with at least one communication protocol in the group consisting of: CDMA, EGPRS and WCDMA, WiMax, WiBro, LTE, IEEE 802.11, WiFi and 4G protocols. 
     
     
       12. A baseband module for a wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , including a data compression unit and/or a data decompression unit. 
     
     
       13. A radio frequency module for a wireless communication unit as claimed in  claim 1 , including a data compression unit and/or a data decompression unit. 
     
     
       14. A wireless terminal, including a wireless communication unit and/or a baseband module and/or a radio frequency module as claimed in  claim 1 . 
     
     
       15. The wireless communication unit of  claim 1 , the compressing further comprising:
 determining that one or more of the most significant characters in each of the samples, excluding a sign, is common to each of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values; and 
 removing the one or more significant characters from each of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values, based upon the determining. 
 
     
     
       16. A method for wireless communication, comprising:
 receiving by a baseband module baseband signals from a radio frequency module via a communication interface and/or transmitting baseband signals to said radio frequency module via said communication interface; 
 compressing at a transmitting side of the communication interface original data to be transmitted over the communication interface into compressed data by a lossy compression algorithm; and 
 decompressing the compressed data and restoring the original data at a receiving side of the communication interface; 
 wherein: 
 said original data comprises a plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values, each member of each pair of the plurality of pairs comprising a sequence of bits of length x; and 
 said compressing comprises:
 calculating a minimum value of I 2 +Q 2  over all of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values; 
 for each position of a bit from 1 to x, determining a threshold, where 1 represents the most significant position and x represents the least significant position; 
 determining that the minimum value exceeds a threshold for a jth position; and 
 removing from each sample of a plurality of samples in said original data the bits from the jth position to the xth position. 
 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16 , the compressing further comprising:
 determining that one or more of the most significant characters in each of the samples, excluding a sign, is common to each of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values; and 
 removing the one or more significant characters from each of the plurality of pairs of I-values and Q-values, based upon the determining. 
 
     
     
       18. A computer program product, including program code portions loadable in a memory of a system, device or terminal, for executing a method when run by said system, device or terminal, the method comprising:
 receiving by a baseband module baseband signals from a radio frequency module via a communication interface and/or transmitting baseband signals to said radio frequency module via said communication interface; 
 compressing at a transmitting side of the communication interface original data to be transmitted over the communication interface into compressed data; and 
 decompressing the compressed data and restoring the original data at a receiving side of the communication interface; wherein: 
 the original data comprises a plurality of samples, each sample comprising a sequence of characters; and 
 the compressing comprises:
 determining that one or more of the most significant characters, excluding a sign, is common to each sample of the plurality of samples; and 
 removing the one or more most significant characters common to each sample from each of the plurality of samples; and wherein: 
 
 each sample is formed by an I-Q data pair including an I-component and a Q-component. 
 
     
     
       19. The computer program product of  claim 18 , wherein:
 each sample of the plurality of samples comprises a sequence of bits; and 
 the determining comprises determining a number of leading zeroes common to all of the plurality of samples.